Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Hello friends. I have been sick for several days and not had the energy to post or do much crafting. Found out tonight that it was probably the flu. The fact that I got my flu shot last fall probably helped keep the fever and body aches that normally accompany the flu at bay. God is good!

While going through Facebook tonight, I ran across the following story posted by one of my Getting Cricky Teammates profiles. Thanks Christel from Scrappin' Sista for posting.

Now I don't know if this is a real story. I also don't know who wrote the words to the Senior Edition of "Jesus Loves Me". Doing a search was no help either, so I will assume these words are Public Domain. If you know otherwise, please let me know and I will be happy to give credit where it is due.

92 YEAR OLD PREACHER
While watching a little TV on Sunday instead of going to church, I
watched a church in Atlanta honoring one of its senior pastors who had
been retired many years. He was 92 at that time and I wondered why the
church even bothered to ask the old gentleman to preach at that age.

After a warm welcome, introduction of this speaker, and as the applause quieted down, he rose from his high back chair and walked slowly, with great effort and a sliding
gait to the podium. Without a note or written paper of any kind he
placed both hands on the pulpit to steady himself and then quietly and
slowly he began to speak....

"When I was asked to come here
today and talk to you, your pastor asked me to tell you what was the
greatest lesson ever learned in my 50-odd years of preaching. I thought
about it for a few days and boiled it down to just one thing that
made the most difference in my life and sustained me through all my
trials.. The one thing that I could always rely on when tears and
heartbreak and pain and fear and sorrow paralyzed me... The only thing
that would comfort was this verse.........

"Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, We are weak but He is strong..... Yes, Jesus loves me.... The Bible tells me so."

The old pastor stated, "I always noticed that it was the adults who
chose the children's hymn 'Jesus Loves Me' (for the children of course)
during a hymn sing, and it was the adults who sang the loudest because
I could see they knew it the best."

"Here for you now is a Senior version of Jesus Loves Me": JESUS LOVES ME Jesus loves me, this I know, Though my hair is white as snow Though my sight is growing dim, Still He bids me trust in Him. (CHORUS) YES, JESUS LOVES ME.. YES, JESUS LOVES ME.. YES, JESUS LOVES ME, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO. Though my steps are oh, so slow, With my hand in His I'll go On through life, let come what may, He'll be there to lead the way. (CHORUS) When the nights are dark and long, In my heart He puts a song.. Telling me in words so clear, "Have no fear, for I am near." (CHORUS) When my work on earth is done, And life's victories have been won. He will take me home above, Then I'll understand His love. (CHORUS) I love Jesus, does He know? Have I ever told Him so? Jesus loves to hear me say, That I love Him every day. (CHORUS)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Ahoy Mates! Welcome to Getting Cricky's Simply Sunday Challenge. This week's challenge is to make anything with a pirate/fishy theme. How can I talk about pirates without mentioning my favorite one? So I will digress from the crafts for a minute and introduce you to him.

Patch the Pirate has been my favorite pirate since elementary school. His stories have taught me so many valuable lessons and I have passed these to my children. They can't remember a time in their lives when his tapes (later cd's) weren't available to listen to. You can learn more about Patch the Pirate by clicking here.

Now back to this week's challenge - This week I made a card for my nephew whose birthday is coming up in March. I ended up using 3 different stamp sets from K. Andrew Designs. These stamps are so versatile that its easy to mix the different sets on one card. Remember that Kristal donates a portion of the proceeds from her stamps to charity. You can purchase any of the sets that I used today by clicking on the pictures.

To create this card, I also pulled out my Create-a-Critter cartridge and paper from the K & Co Hopscotch collection. I also pulled some black cardstock from my stash and my black excelsior ink.

The blue/green plaid paper was cut at 11" X 4 1/4" and scored in the middle at 5 1/2". I then cut a piece of of the rainbow paper at 3" X 4 1/4" followed by a piece of blue paper at 1/2" X 4 1/4". I used a scrap from my stash for the blue in the octopus and another for his pink cheeks. He and his accessories were cut at 3". I used glossy accents to highlight his eyes and mouth.

To finish off the inside, I cute a mat out of blue at 5 1/4" X 4" and a little strip out of paper from the card base. You may notice the polka dots under the mat. The paper from K & CO is double sided, so this adds an extra dimension to the project.

Now wouldn't you love to play along? You can! Simply click on the K. Andrew Design Blinkie below to go to the blog. Find the Simply Sunday Challenge and link up your favorite Pirate/ Fish themed project.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out Patch the Pirate!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Today the Design Team is
bringing you some very special projects created for our wonderful and amazing
leader Kristal! Our term is almost over and we wanted to show her just how much
we appreciate ALL that she has done for us this term. The projects that we will
be sharing with you will also be sent to Kristal. We encourage ALL of her fans
to join in on the fun as well! Be sure to add your card/project to the link
below and then be sure to mail it off to her!

If
you've hopped along from Charlotte then you are in the right place!! If you are just
joining me from your dashboard, or reading this via email, please be sure to CLICK HERE to start at the beginning with Kristal's blog (you'll want to catch up on all the FUN!!)...

Each of Kristal's stamp sets benefit charity. At least $1 per stamp set goes to
benefit the charity noted on the stamp set package. Kristal is donating to the
following charities: Cancer Angels, Storefront Shelter for Homeless Children,
Intrepid & Fallen Heroes, E. Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation,
Doorways Shelter for Women & Children (Domestic Violence), Wayside House
for Women, Camp Good Days & Special Times, Adopt a Classroom, and Autism
Research Institute. Kristal will donate $1 for every stamp set sold, retail or
wholesale to the charity noted; and over time believes this will add up to some
wonderful miracles for these special people. So you can feel good that each
time you purchase a K Andrew Designs art stamp set, someone around the country
is receiving some good help!

K Andrew's stamps are all made and assembled here in the USA, which is very
important to Kristal. This ensures all product materials are safe and that jobs
are being provided and maintained here in America. You can learn even
more about Kristal's stamps (and pick some up for yourself) by visiting her online
store: K Andrew
Designs:

Today, I made two items to send to Kristal. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed being a part of this great team. Kristal's two favorite colors are pink and green. She also is a HUGE fan of owls. I decided to combine these 2 "favorites" of hers to make a card and a mini journal.

Here is the video with the instructions for the card and the mini journal.

I used a few stamp sets to create these projects. You can click on any of the pictures to purchase these great stamps.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Due to a family emergency, I am not able to participate in tonight's blog hop. I still plan on giving away my candy from this week. To earn an extra entry, go through the Design Team posts and leave me a comment telling me about at least 5 projects. Submissions will close at 11:59 pm on Monday. Have a great weekend.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Hasn't this week of projects been fun? Some of the projects I've seen have really inspired me to pull out some of those cartridges I haven't used in a while. Nate' ABC's is probably at the top of the list. Everyone has done such a great job. The stamps from K. Andrew Designs are so versatile. There have been so many creative pairings of sentiments with cartridges this week!

The stamp set I chose to use on today's card is Food for Thought. You can click on the picture to order this and other stamps from K. Andrew Designs.

I wanted to give a little background for this card. My daughter has been having some health issues over the last few weeks. In an attempt to discover what is causing this, we eliminated dairy products from her diet. Saturday will be the end of the 2 week period and the day that she is able to re-introduce dairy. It's been a tough 2 weeks. You never realize how much dairy you eat until you attempt to eliminate it from your diet. At this point, it doesn't appear that dairy is the problem, but we are going to finish the 2 weeks anyway. To commemorate the re-introduction of dairy, I made this card for her. It was so fun and I hope she loves it.

Recipe:
1. All the paper for this card is from my stash of scraps. The printed papers are all double sided cardstock from K&Company. I'm not sure which collections they were from since they were scraps. I cut the green at 5 1/2" X 8 1/2" and scored it down the middle. The 2 rectangle mats are actually from the same piece of paper, you just see each side this way. They were each cut at 4 3/4" X 3 1/2". All the other papers were also scraps from my stash.
2. Walnut Stain Distress Ink - Used to distress the edges of the papers and mouse and to stamp sentiments.
3. Harvest Orange ribbon from 3 Girl Jam
4. 2" circle punch for the sentiment
5. Cricut Country Life cartridge - the mouse and it's layers were cut at 3 1/2"
6. K. Andrew Design stamps "Food for Thought"
7. Distress tool - Used on the sentiment circle as well as the mat on the inside of the card.
8. Foam tape for the sentiment circle and the mouse

The inside of the card has a tan mat cut at 4" X 5 1/4". Two more strips were cut from the printed paper. The first was at 2 1/4" X 4" and the second at 1 1/4" X 4". The 1 1/4" strip was attached to the larger strip and both adhered about 1/4" from the bottom of the tan mat. The edges of the mat were distressed with the tool, followed by the Walnut Stain distress ink. The sentiment was then stamped to the mat.

How about that CANDY?

To receive today's entries, please leave a comment below stating which set of K.Andrew stamps is on your wish list. Easy!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

I'm really sorry to be so late with this post. It's been a long day and I've not made it to write this post. Today, I made a bookmark to go in my "new" guestbook. It was a pretty simple project and I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Let's Get Started -
I used a left-over piece of the cardstock from to guestbook to form the base of the bookmark. This was cut to be 9"X4" and was from "penny's Playground - Quick Quotes Paper". I then cut a piece of smooth Coordination cardstock in purple at 8"X3 1/2". I pulled a piece of cream colored cardstock from my scrap stash by "Recollections" and cut it at 7 1/2"X3". I then rounded the right hand corners of all three pieces using the 3/8" side of my corner chomper. I inked around the edges of all 3 pieces with "Dusty Concord" Distress Ink. Holes were placed in the left hand side of the bookmark with the Bind-It-All and then the edges trimmed out so that I can place the bookmark inside my guestbook.

Using the Cricut Country Life cartridge page 60, I cut the flower pitcher at 2" using scraps of paper from my stash that coordinated. I cut the banner from the same page using both layers at 1". The Lilac twine from the Twinery was perfect as well. I love the way it all coordinates with my new guest book.

Remember I told you that I was going to use "Sympathetic Sayings" from K. Andrew Designs today? You can view this stamp set by clicking on the image below.

I really liked the saying that I stamped on this bookmark. I love to remember the friends and family that have come to visit me. I think that this is a perfect stamped image to express my thoughts of these special people.

Doesn't it go great in my new book? It is the perfect way for me to keep track on where I want my guests to sign. Hopefully, I won't find any more pages with several blank lines.

Now for the CANDY!

Remember that I am giving away "Splashtastic Summer" as part of this hop. I want someone to enjoy this great set. To gain an entry today, all you have to do is be a follower of my blog and make a comment. I feel like it should be an "easy entry" day. Have a great day!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Good morning everyone and welcome to the Tuesday Tutorial at Getting Cricky. Today I am combining the Tuesday Tutorial with the "Choose a Cartridge" pre-hop challenge that is going on. I really hope you have been following the fun. If not, you might be a bit confused. Several Getting Cricky Design Team Members are challenging themselves to use one Cricut Cartridge all week. The extra challenge is that we are using a cartridge that we haven't used in at least 3 months! To add to the fun, we get to use any stamp from K. Andrew Designs that we wish. It is challenging and a great way to think outside of the box.

The fun doesn't stop there. Anyone can play along. All you need to do is link a project using a cartridge that you haven't used in 3 or months. You will also need to use stamps from K. Andrew Designs. I hope you join in the fun.

Today, I am showing you a guest book that I altered. No, I'm not getting married. I have used this guest book for over 20 years in my home. After moving many times and going through 2 kids, this book was literally falling apart. I decided to alter it and make it beautiful again. The best part was remembering some of the wonderful guests who have been in our home. I know that there is at least one person who is in the book is now with Jesus. I also found some "signings" by one of my children as well as places my daughter (who is now nearly 17) signed when she was quite small. Such precious memories needed to be preserved.

Please enjoy the video, but don't forget to check out the rest of the post as there is information on the stamp set I used as well as on my current giveaway. Thanks so much for watching and have a great day!

Today, I used Pirate Tales and Fish Scales which is featured below. You can just click on the picture to be taken immediately to the page.

Giveaway!

Please check Days 1 & 2 to see the many ways you can earn entries to my current giveaway for the "Splashtastic Summer" stamp set. Also be sure to visit my blog for more great projects. Thanks!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Welcome to day 2 of Getting Cricky Fun. If you missed day one of this fun series, you will want to go back and see that post. In it, I explain all about the fun going on at Getting Cricky and I also post a preview of the stamp set that I will be giving away. Today's entry chances are listed at the bottom of this post. Today I made this fun Valentine Card for you to view. I used the "It's Valentines" stamp set from K. Andrew Designs.

So now on to today's project. The heart has a homemade wiggle wire. I learned to make this from one of my Getting Cricky Design Teammates. You can see this great tutorial by Amy at Love to Crop by clicking here. This is probably the last Valentine I will post this year. I hope you enjoy it as well as the video tutorial. Thanks for watching and have a great day!

Blog Candy Entries

1. Be a follower of my blog and leave a comment below stating that you are one.
2. Pin today's project at Pinterest and leave me a comment with the location.
3. Leave a post on Facebook telling about the giveaway going on and leave a comment telling me you did.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Welcome to day one of Getting Cricky Fun. This week those of the Design Team playing along have chosen to use only 1 Cricut Cartridge or SVG set to create each day's projects. The week will conclude on Friday with the "Cabin Fever" blog hop. Our goal is to show you just how versatile Kristal's stamps are and also to get out those Cricut cartridges we have never used or at least not used much. But the fun doesn't stop there. You will also be able to link up your projects using a cartridge you haven't used in awhile. To link a project you need to:

1. Choose a cartridge you haven't used in a while

2. Use K. Andrew Design Stamps in that project

I have chosen to use Country Life. I believe that I have only used it 1 time and it was time to explore this great cartridge. I think its going to be a bit of a challenge, but I think I'm up for it. There are some interesting ideas racing through my brain. You should find something that you will enjoy this week. Of course, I will have some candy, so stick around until the end of the post to see how you can receive entries.

In addition to Country Life, I have chosen to use the "It's Valentines" and "I Heart You" stamp sets for today's project. To purchase these stamps, simply click on the picture of the stamps set below. If you are new to K. Andrew Design stamps, there are a few things you should know about these fabulous stamps.
1. Kristal donates a portion of the proceeds from each stamp set to charity.
2. These stamps are made in the USA. When you purchase stamps from K. Andrew Designs, you'll not only receive high quality stamps, but you'll also be helping others out.

Now on to today's project. I created 4 different Valentines using Country Life and the stamps above. For cut sizes and other information, please view the video.

What big week would be complete without some CANDY? Each day throughout the week, I will be giving you several ways to receive entries for this week's candy. Next Tuesday (February 21) I will post the winner of "Splashtastic Summer". There will be several opportunities each day to receive entries. Some options will stay the same and others may change. Today, you will have the opportunity to receive 4 entries.

1. Be a follower of my blog and leave a comment below stating that you are one.
2. Pin today's project at Pinterest and leave me a comment with the location.
3. Leave a post on Facebook telling about the giveaway going on and leave a comment telling me you did.
4. After viewing the different cartridges used by the Design Team this week, leave me a comment below telling me which cartridge you are most excited to see demonstrated and why you are excited for that one.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Valentines Day is quickly approaching and I really need to get some Valentines done. Unfortunately, this has been a very busy week and there hasn't been much time or energy for crafting. I needed some cute Valentines that I could make quickly. I need to make around 40 of them and I don't have much time. I used these 3 designs to make about half of them.

Of course, what project would be complete without stamps from K. Andrew Designs? I used the following 3 sets in today's projects. If you are interested in purchasing them, please click on the pictures and they will take you straight to the K. Andrew Designs store. Since these fabulous stamps are made in the USA and a portion of the proceeds from each stamp set is donated to charity, you are helping others out when you purchase them.

Now lets get on to making some Valentines! Most of the cards that I am making this year are going to be 3"X3".

Let's Get Started:
To start, all of the bases are cut 3"X6". I used as many scraps as I could before reaching for the solids mentioned above to make my bases. All of the white mats were then cut at 2 3/4"X2 3/4". Now about the ribbon - Except for the pink ribbon, the ribbon was from $ spools from target. There are a few different prints on each spool, but each different piece is pretty short. This is why I didn't make bows with them. Each different ribbon had enough ribbon to adhere to the front of the mat and tuck under the back on 5 cards (if you were careful). They are probably a good deal if you are looking for a variety of ribbon to make one-of-a-kind cards, but not as helpful if you mass produce.

This first card was an idea from one of my Getting Cricky Design Teammates - Shawn Mosch- who suggested this typewriter and stamp. You should check out her blog by clicking here. Creativity just oozes from this girl! I cut the typewriter and its layer at 2" using the Heritage Cricut cartridge and black and grey scraps. You can find this on page 53 of the manual. I adhered the layers together and then adhered them to the card using little foam squares. The stamp is a stamp from the "I heart you" stamp set. I was having a bit of trouble with getting clean images with my camera for some reason so the image is a bit blurred. However, despite all the little whirls in this stamp, the image stamped crisp and clean straight out of the package!

The second card is a bit more girly because I went with all the pinks. I cut the moon from Create-a-Critter (page 71) at 2". I had to break down and pull a sheet from the K&Co Valentines stack to get the heart hat. The hat layer ended up being cut twice - once in the print and once in pink because this layer was for the hat and the cheeks. I cut the base layer from brown. I didn't cut the final layer which was the hat decorations because it was already decorated by the paper. I also used foam squares to pop this image off the paper. I stamped the inside of this card because there wasn't room for the image and the stamp on the outside of a 3X3" card. This sentiment is one stamp from the "It's Valentines" stamp set.

The final card today is one that I think Kristal from K. Andrew Designs would like because she loves owls. In fact, she loves them so much that she designed 3 sets of stamps with an owly theme. To make the sentiment for the inside of the card, I combined 5 stamps from the "Owly hoo" stamp set and set them up using my Fiskars stamp press. The owl is cut from Create-a-Critter at 2" and can be found on page 25 of the manual.

I hope you enjoyed these projects. Remember to come back tomorrow for the start of our "Choose a Cartridge" week at Getting Cricky. There's still time for you to guess which cartridge I will be using for extra entries to win the "Splashtastic Summer" stamp set. I'm hoping my camera issues will be resolved before then. Have a great day.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

It feels like I have been MIA for a long time. Sorry about that. Between a very long work weekend last weekend and dealing with some family health problems, I've had a lot of catching up to do! There are some great things coming up though and I can't wait to share them with you. Ready?

Fun with the Getting Cricky Design Team starts on Sunday with not one, but TWO events. The first one is the Simply Sunday Challenge. Projects this week will feature wedding/ engagement/ anniversary themes. This sounds like fun to me and I have a project in mind that I hope to get done to link to this one!

In preparation for next week's Blog Hop (more on that one later), the design team is also doing a pre-hop week similar to the one we did last month. This time we are featuring a specific cartridge and using that one ALL week long. The challenge is to choose one that you own and haven't ever used or at least not for a long time. I think that I've only used mine once. We can't wait for you to see how versatile the stamps from K. Andrew Designs are and this will be one great way to showcase it. This will also start on Sunday.

The pre-hop week will culminate with this month's blog hop. The theme is Cabin Fever and will feature things for kids to do. Sound like fun? I think it will be, but I must admit that I am nervous about this one. Why? Because the other catch is that those of us participating in the pre-hop will be using the same cartridge we used all week in the kid's projects. Let's just say it will be a challenge!

Oh yes, I mentioned a GIVE-AWAY. Just like last month, I plan on giving away a stamp set from K. Andrew Designs. I chose "Splashtastic Summer" because before long, we will be starting on our summertime projects. All week you will be given ways to enter the drawing for this stamp set. To kick it off, you can start earning entries today. There's 3 ways to receive those today and remember that the more times you enter throughout the week, the more chances you receive!

1. Can you guess which cartridge I will be using? Every correct guess will receive 1 entry. To narrow it down, I will post 10 cartridges to choose from (each that I own) below. Leave a comment below telling me your guess. This entry chance will close on Sunday when the first post goes live.

2. Create a Facebook post linking it back to this post telling about the week of fun. Leave a comment telling me you did and you will earn an extra entry.

3. Have a blog? Create a blog post and link it to this post telling your followers about the give-away and the week of fun. Be sure to let me know in a comment below and you will receive an extra entry.

Friday, February 3, 2012

I went to my craft space to start making Valentines earlier this evening. However, when I got started I ended up making an anniversary card instead. I used the "Wild Card" Cricut cartridge and papers from Recollections and K & Company. Best of all I was able to use my newest set of stamps from K. Andrew Designs. You can click on the image below to purchase this great set of stamps.

I can tell that I will be using this one a lot! Remember that all of these stamps are made in the USA and that at least $1 from each set is donated to charity. They are so versatile. I have found it is fun to mix and match the sayings. There are soooo many things you could make from this one simple set!

Now on to the project. I really like the way this one turned out.

Inside of the card

I hope you enjoy the video to see the steps I took to make this cute card. Thanks for watching and have a great day!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Hello fellow Cricut users! I just wanted to spotlight a special website for you today. It is called MyCutSearch.com and you can get there by clicking on the button below.

I discovered this site through one of my Getting Cricky Design Teammates - Shawn Mosch. It is now my go to site when I am looking for a particular Cricut image. It is so easy to use. Simply type what you are looking for in the search box and the cartridges that contain that image will appear. Easy peasy! Shawn, thanks for this great tool. It has saved me so much time!

Today I am going to show you a card that I made for my husband's birthday. However, by using different stamps and paper, this could be easily used for a Valentine or encouragement card. This is the first time that I have used the Wild Card cartridge. I think I need to practice with this one a little more to make sure I have it figured out, but it was fun to use.

I also used Coffee & Tea fro You & Me from K. Andrew Designs. You can view and purchase these by clicking on the image below. Remember that these stamps are made in the USA and that at least $1 from each set is donated to charity. They are so easy to use. If fact, I masked words from one of these for the sentiment on my envelope, but more on that later.

Using the Wild Card Cartridge, I cut the wave from blue cardstock and the wave envelope from the orange plaid paper. I also cut the envelope liner from the blue cardstock. All the cuts were at 5 1/2". I then scored along the tick marks and adhered across the bottom and sides of the envelope piece to form an envelope.

Using the plain orange cardstock, I then cut my phrase at 5 1/2" and adhered it to the inside of the card using my Xyron 150.

Using a piece of the leftover plaid paper, I made the orange plaid wave and adhered it to the front of the card using my ATG. The white pen marks were then added to add interest and detail.

I cut the frame for the front of the envelope twice, once in blue and once in orange. Using the negative space on the orange frame. I stamped "your" by masking off the "on" from "on your" using the Coffee & Tea for You & Me stamp set. I also stamped "birthday" from the same set. Tim Holtz "Faded Jeans" distress ink was a great match for this. The frame was completed by adding the blue frame around the orange.

This is a picture of the card inside the envelope. This was a pretty simple card, once I figured out how the pieces went together. However, like I said earlier, I need more practice with this cartridge.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

This announcement was made for my nephew. I love the way the Teresa Collins Baby Boutique Imagine cartridge was designed. Though my baby days are long gone, I just knew there would be lots of things I could make with it in the future. Now I had some trouble with my Imagine when I initially started this project. On the video I share this trouble with you. Hopefully it will save someone the same heartache in the future! I also include the recipe in the video.

About Me

I have a lot of titles. I am a follower of Christ, created to glorify God. I am a wife to the best husband in the world and a mom to two great kids. I am also an RN with a great job as Director of Case Management. In all of my spare time, I craft.